Minister of State for Education Anil Deshmukh told Express Newsline today that the act may not be implemented from the 1999-2000 academic year following sustained opposition from Mumbai's MLAs.

He said about 80 per cent of Mumbai's MLAs expressed strong resistance to the act at a meeting convened to discuss the legislation in January.The main opposition, including an outcry from schools, is to Section 5 of the act, which stipulates that 80 per cent of the seats in kindergarten classes will be filled as per the neighbourhood policy. The MLAs said schools should be allowed to revert to the earlier admission policy. Besides, with elections next year, politicians are reluctant to implement policy decisions which could mar their chances atthe hustings.

The bill, which had been suspended during the Monsoon Session last year, was finally passed by both Houses of the legislature in December.

However, with the government failing to notify the act and schools proceeding with admissions, chances of implementing the act are bleak, the minister admitted. Technically, the government has three options: (a) to notify the act via an ordinance (b) to reintroduce the act, with amendments, in the Assembly (c) to scrap the legislation altogether.